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“Cager just has made so much progress from mat drills to spring ball, and for that to happen to him was very sad. The good news is he’s still very young in his career, and that type of injury, people come back from it.”

At Saturday’s Paradise Camp, Cager was in good spirits as he traversed Miami’s practice field on crutches. Like other players, he enjoyed talking with the guest coaches at the camp, especially MichaelIrvin.

Losing Cager (6-foot-5, 215 pounds) means Miami is down a big red-zone target. It also means the Hurricanes will enter fall practice Aug. 4 with seven receivers on scholarship.

“It makes us have less guys that can do it,” Richt said. “We have a few more receivers now than we had in the spring, so that helps, but to go down one at that position is not real comfortable, but that’s football. The rest of the guys have got to step up and be ready to perform.”

One of the receivers not listed on the roster – Dionte Mullins – was in attendance at Paradise Camp. Mullins, who sat out his senior year at nearby Gulliver Prep because of academic issues, is still trying to bring up his test scores to qualify for UM. Fellow UM signee Cedrick Wright, a safety from Gulliver, is in a similar bind.

“Right now is everybody’s still in the race, is the best I can say it, still pursuing to get in,” Richt said, when asked about the status of both.

Other thoughts from Richt:

As the coach alluded to in a tweet, running back Mark Walton is not subject to further discipline and will play in the first game of the season, “barring anything new.” Walton, Richt said, “had a great spring. He really became a very good pass-protector, route-runner, ball-catcher. He’s an outstanding runner. He finishes well. He’s a very good player. We’ve got other good backs as well, but I’m glad he’s back in good standing and working hard.”

Richt was pleased about the talent level at his inaugural Miami camp – “there’s a massive amount of Division I players out here” – and the intense atmosphere.

“If you’ve been offered, you don’t have to try to get an offer,” Richt said. “But we were like, ‘Hey man, let’s go compete.’ We want guys that want to compete. That’s all our alums talk about: at the ‘U’ we compete. If you want to come here and cross your arms, that’s OK, and sometimes a guy’s got a little nagging injury, something like that. There’s a bunch of dudes that absolutely did not have to compete today, but they chose to compete, and that fires us up.”

On the backflip: “As long as I keep landing on my feet, I’ll do it. If I don’t land on my feet, we’ll call 911 and that’ll be the last time I try it.”

On graduating in 1982, a year before the UM’s first national title: “We tried to feel like we had a little bit of ownership in helping turn things in the right direction, because things don’t happen overnight. I don’t care if you played for a national championship team or not. If you played for the ‘U,’ you’re family, and you’re part of the legacy of this place.”